MIT Installs Killian Today; Panels Discuss World Needs

MIT's two day Mid-Century Convocation on the Social Implications of Scientific Progress winds up at 11 a.m. today with the inauguration of James Rhyne Killian, Jr. as the tenth president of the Institute.

President Conant will extend greetings and congratulations to Killian, following his inauguration, on behalf of Harvard and the Universities of America. A host of other leaders in education, technology, religion, and government will be on hand for the ceremonies.

Thousands Collect at Tech

Yesterday, thousands swarmed through Tech's 46 buildings along the Charles to sightsee and to listen to an imposing array of panel discussions which undertook to analyze the achievements, trends, and unsolved problems of 50 years of the 20th century.

Faith in man's ability to supply his needs through science--in spite of the world's depleting natural resources and increasing population--was expressed by a panel manned by Vannevar Bush, president of Carnegie Institution of Washington, Frank W. Notestein, director of the Office of Population Research at Princeton, Fairfield Osborne, president of the Conservation Foundation, Robert P. Russell, director of the International Basic Economy Corporation, and Sir Henry Tizard, British production expert.

Bush noted that a danger of starvation exists, but said that investigations into the nature of photosynthesis may well make it possible to produce protein and carbohydrates synthetically. Russell asked "alarmists" to "look at vast...lands with rich soils and abundant water" that still remain to be cleared and put into production.

Whether or not modern technology can turn areas that geography, biology, or human prejudice has kept backward into prosperous lands was the debate topic for a sextet of men familiar with such underdeveloped regions as the Belgian Congo, and the Punjab.

Nelson Rockefeller, Oswaldo Aranha, former president of the United Nations, and Richard M. Bissell, Jr. of the U. S. Economic Cooperation Administration were among the speakers in this group.

Science vs. Virtue

Percy W. Bridgman '04, Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, denied "that science is in some way inimical to a realization by man of the highest virtue within him," at a discussion about "Science, Materialism, and the Human Spirit." He spoke jointly with two Princeton professors of philosophy and Julius S. Bixler, president of Colby College.

"Living an awakened life...the individual can always have dominion over his institutions," said Erwin D. Canham, editor of the Christian Science Monitor, striking the keynote of an appraisal of the role of the individual in a world of institutions.

All Out for Specialization

At a forum about the problem of specialization in twentieth century education, Philip J. Rulon, professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education, heartily endorsed specialized instruction.